Honda tests fuel cell to power home

KITAKYUSHU – Honda Motor Co. on Tuesday began testing a system to supply electricity to single-family homes from fuel-cell vehicles.

Honda will continue testing the system, designed to examine how much power such a system could provide, by supplying electricity to a single-family house once a week between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. in Kitakyushu. The experiment is expected to last two years until the end of fiscal 2014.

The maximum power output of the fuel-cell vehicle used in the experiment is 9 kw, covering six days of power used in an average household, according to Honda and the city of Kitakyushu.

A fuel-cell car is powered by electricity produced by combining hydrogen and oxygen and has a greater power capacity than an electric vehicle. It takes only three or four minutes to fill a fuel-cell vehicle with liquid hydrogen, less time than it takes to charge an electric vehicle.

Fuel-cell vehicles are attracting attention as a power source in the event of an emergency.